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Rufunsa fire, 14 October 2017 Rufunsa, Luangwa

Out · last detection 19 Oct 2017, 11:25 UTC

The fire started on 14 October 2017 in Rufunsa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,878 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Lusaka since 2016 (of 77 with a page). Number 29 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
12,878ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
14 Oct 2017 – 19 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Oct
2017
Heat detections
384
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct19 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

41°high
45km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.3 mm on 28 Oct.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 266 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Rufunsa where it started
    9,705 ha reached on 11 Oct
    1.0 %
  2. Luangwa
    3,265 ha reached on 11 Oct
    0.8 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
14 Oct 30.4 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Oct 33.4 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Oct 37.7 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Oct 40.5 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Oct 41.0 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Oct 34.1 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Oct after 38.2 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Oct after 36.2 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Oct after 33.0 °C 36 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Oct after 33.9 °C 33 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Oct after 35.2 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Oct after 38.6 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Oct after 40.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Oct after 38.3 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42
28 Oct after 28.2 °C 37 % 53 km/h 11.3 mm Low 5

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 7 Oct 2017
After · 26 Oct 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 384Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Rufunsa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 October 2017 and 19 October 2017: 6 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,878 hectares (128.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rufunsa (9,705 ha, 1.0 %); Luangwa (3,265 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.